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Toaq with Ease

Chíetoaı kọsaq – 3rd Lesson

Kua ní da. This is a room.
Tı jí rú súq kúa da. Me and you are in (at) the room.
Nuo sá shı da. One is asleep.
Rú shıe sá shı da. And one is awake.
Nuo súq da. You sleep.
Rú shıe jí da. And I’m awake.
Bao níjuı da. This here is white.
Rú kıa níjao da. And that there is red.
Peq báo da. The white thing is paper.
Rú rua kía da. And the red thing is a flower.

Notes

  1. In the last lesson we learned that there are many verbs in Toaq that would be nouns in English. kua “to be a room” is another such word.

  2. means “to be at a place”, “to be present at” and can be used any time two things exhibit spatial overlap. nıe “to be inside something” would be more specific.

  3. Now we see kua again, but this time with a rising tone . While kua means “to be a room”, kúa means “the room(s)” (singular or plural not specified). The transformation from the verb meaning to the noun meaning follows a regular pattern: When applying a rising tone to a verb, the resulting expression refers to things that are or do the thing described by the verb. The meaning of kua is “to be a room”, so kúa must refer to something which “is a room” – ergo, a room or rooms.

  4. For now, remember sá shı “one”, “someone”, “something” as is.

  5. súq is not the noun form of any verb, but merely a new personal pronoun, meaning “you”.

  6. níjuı “this (thing) here”, “these (things) here” and níjao “that (thing) there”, “those (things) there” are more precise forms of “this/that”, which you are already familiar with. Note that these words can be used with objects and people alike, without being impolite. Bao is a verb meaning “to be white”: English adjectives, too, correspond to Toaq verbs.

  7. And one more time, báo with a rising tone refers to something which is or does the thing described by the verb “to be white”, therefore it refers to something which is white – it means “the white thing(s)”. And analogously: kía “the red thing(s)”.

Exercises

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